Insulating flat-wire conductors



J. A. HEANY.'

INSULATING FLAT WIRE CONDUCTORS. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 16, I918.

1 42 0 5 Patented Aug. 15, 1922.

ra t r JOHN ALLEN HEANY, or NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, As'sIeNoR, BY MESNE assrein MEN'I S, 'ro ROCKBES'I'OS PRODUCTS CORPORATION, A CORPORATION or DE AWARE.

INSULATING FLAT-WIRE ooNnuo'roas.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JOHN ALLEN HEANY, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at New Haven, in the county of New Havena-nd State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Insulating Flat-Wire Conductors,

of which the following is a specification;

This invention relates to insulated conductors andto. a means and method for applying insulating materialto conductors of the fiat-wire type, and isa modification of the inventions shown .in myPatents Nos. 1,071,676; dated Aug. 26, 1913, and 1,155,812, Oct. 5, 1915. e

In Patent No. 1,07 1,67 6, issued .to me on August 26, 1913, there is disclosed a method for applying fibrous insulating material to conductors {by winding a thread coatedwlth fibers, such as asbestos, about the conductor,

then impregnating the fibers with a suitable binding material, and reducing the insulating sheath thus formed to a smooth and uniform condition. This method of insulating conductors is readily carried out by means of the apparatus disclosed when the conduc- It will be seen that a certain smoothing ac-" tors are circularin cross-section, and the re-.

consequence of which asbestos-covered wire manufactured by this methodhas gone into successful and extended use.

a substantial nature are encountered .whenit is soughtto correspondingly apply insulat-' ing material to conductors of the fiat-wire type. The chief cause of difficulty arises by sults obtained. are wholly satisfactory, as a'.

smooth cylindrical surface on the insulating sheath. Obviously, finishing apparatus'of the general nature described cannot, un-

modified, be used to advantage when the; conv ductors are of the flatwire type, not only because of the difliculty of bringing the rubbing surfaces to bear with a uniform pressureon all portions of th-eoppos1tefiatfaces of the wire, but also becausefitfis difficult to avoid twisting the flat stripito such an ex- .7

tent Qthat the smoothing; operation "is 'interfered with and the wire hardened to a degree that will seriously interfere w1tb,subsequent handling and working, in addition to imp It is theobject of my invention to. pro- I I "Specification of Letterslatent. P t nt d 151', 1922, I Application filed November 16,1918. Serial No. 262,873.

vide an insulated fiat-wire conductor, having a fiber coating of uniform thicknessand producing-the same, These ends areaccomhomogeneity and a means and method for plished generally by a construction and arlaterally supporting the wire alternately;

.rangement of apparatus'which provides for.

from opposite sidesand. smoothing the-faces and'edges of the wire at the pointswhere, it is supported. 1 1

I utilize for this purpose a series ofbacking and supporting membersalong the faces- ,of which the conductor is advanced, so that one face of a given section of the conductor 1s in engagement w1th a'backing and sup-- porting member while the face of the conductor directly opposite the engaged face is free, and the other faceeefa different sec-'- tion is engaged by a backing and supporting member w1th the face directly opposite free 1 tion takesplace longitudinally of the wire as of spring-pressed wiping or smoothing members carried by rotatable fliers sooperating across-.ithe exposed face and edges of the supported sections of wire. wiping members employed corresponds to the number of backing and supporting mem .35 c as to draw the wiping members l t lly..

I have found, however, that difficulties of The number of 7 bers, so that each backing and supporting member sup-ports a section ofwire while the unengaged face is being smoothed by the corresponding wiping member. In-the accompanying drawings, whioh'are intended to beillustrative of merelyone ofmany ways in which the disclosed :method" may be accomplished, and fromwhich wide" departures in forms of apparatusvm -b '1 F'g. 1 'is a viewyin side elevation and largely. diagrammatic of-- a flat-wire insulat ng apparatus embodying the invention;--

ig.-2 is an enlar-g'edwtransverse sectional Fig. 4 is an enlarged of one of-the fiat-wire supportingand backing members. A

View in perspective In Fig. 1 of the drawings, there is shown mechanism for smoothing and finishing in-. sulating flat-wire in accordance. with the invention. This mechanism consists of a reel, 1 from which the flat-wire conductor 2 v is fed through 'a central opening in a flier 3' that operates towind an asbestos-fiber covered thread 4 from the spool 5 carried by the flier into spiral convolutions on the advancing conductor 2. A device for applying suitable binding-material to the asbestos covering is also provided, and this takes the form of areceptacle 6 in which a roller 7 rotates to supply the liquid binding material from the receptacle to the conductor. Smoothing and-finishing mechanism is indicated generally .at 8 and consists of a framework 9-in which i are mounted the smoothing fiiers'lO, each of which is provided with a central opening through which the wire is advanced for the finishing operation.

The special construction'of the fliers 10, by which they are adapted to perform smoothing operations on the flat surfaces of the conductor, contemplates 'the use of wiping or smoothing members 11-, one of which is pivotally mounted on each flier at a point near the periphery thereof with the free end extended toward thecentral part of the flier and having a rounded smoothing portion,

indicated generally at 12, adapted to trail across the edges and available faces of the conductor as the smoothing member 'rotated about the conductor in-the revolution ofthefiiers. v.

,In order to exert a steadyi'ng influenceon the wire and hold itfrom movement laterally under I the action 'of thesmoothing members, backing and supporting members 13 are provided whose function 1t is to en--- gage one face of thefwire While the wiping members 11 are trailing transversely across and correspondingly smoothing the opposite face. The members 13 are held against rotationby being keyed at one end 14 into the transverse stationary partition members 15 in the main framework 9, but form bearings at the other end 16 which project into depressions inthe fliers 10 and about which the fliers 10 rotate.v An intermediate portion'17 of the supporting member 10 is semicircular in cross-section, and the flat face 18 thereof has the samewidth as that of the conductor so that the member willform a backing support for the engaged section" of conductor from one edge to the other of the flat face ,with which it is in contact.

It will be seen that, with the construction and arrangement of mechanism. shown, the trailing and rounded end 1% of tl1e-smootl1- ing member v11 will be drawn across the edges and the exposed face of the wire 2 once .in each revolution of the carrying flier 10, and-will move'across the rounded surface of the backing member for one-half the distance traveled in each rotation." The function of the member 13 now becomes apparent in that it provides a backing-support for preventing lateral movement of the wire as the spring-pressed smoothing'member 11 performs its smoothing operation on the exposed face thereof. It will be' seen also that, since the width of the supporting member is the same as the width of the insulated wire, the smoothing member 11 passes from the surface of the member 17 and across the edge of the wire without any interruption or shock that would tend to injure the insulating sheath onv the comparatively thin edge. of the conductor. It will be noted that any fibers that project outwardlyfrom the edge of the wire will be 'the wire opposite the face engaged by the supporting member just described, and at a point separated therefrom along the length of the wire. Thus, it will be seen that successive sections of the wire are simultaneously operated upon,'one face of one section being the number'of smoothing device units made use of in the series going to make up the smoothing and finishing mechanism .as awhole.

In Fig. 1 ofthe drawings, a series of four smoothing devices is shown, but it is to be understood that the particular number employed is capable of variation to suit the requirements of different grades of work. Each smoothing unit flief 10 is preferably independently driven through a gear train 19-from any desired source of power,

.and it will be evident that the speed at which the fliers are driven is a factor in the effectiveness of the smoothing and finishing operation and can accordingly be controlled about by the relative movement between the I fiat faces 18 of the supporting members 17 and the engaged surfaces of the wire. The

advancing movement of the conductor through the mechanism results, not only in a helical winding of the asbestos covered' cord A; on the w'ire,.but it also produces a corresponding helical path of travel of the smoothing members 11 across the face and edges of the conductor so that the main smoothing action'is in the direction of the lay of the [Wound material. The effect of this is to thoroughly incorporate the ashestos fibers and the finishing material into an insulatingsheath having a uniform thickness with correspondingly high dielectric properties, and a homogeneity that is a requisite in a good insulator. As the finished wire is drawn from the smoothing and finishing mechanism at 20, it may be subjected to any further treatment desired, such as spraying or heating, or Wound directly on the receiving reel 21.

hat I claim is- 1. An insulated flat wire finishing apparatus comprising a relatively stationary sup port arranged to engage one'face of the wire and a smoothing device mounted for rotation about the axis of said support and Wire and adapted to smooth the unengaged surface thereof.

2. An insulated fiat Wire finishing apparatus comprising a relatively stationary sup-. port for one face of the wire, a resilient smoothing device mounted for rotation about the axis of said support, means for advancing the wire and means for rotating said smoothing device.

3. An insulatedflat wire finishing apparatus, comprising, supporting means arwire, and means for transversely smoothing the unengaged face and edges of the lastnamed section.

' ft. An apparatus for finishing covered fiat I wire, comprising, a supporting and smooth? ing member arranged to engage one face of a section of the Wire, means for advancing the Wire to effect a longitudinal smoothing action of the engaged section, and means for transversely smoothing the opposite face and edges of the engaged section.

5. An apparatus for finishing covered fiat \vire, comprising, a wire supporting member arranged to engage one of the faces of a section of Wire, a Wire supporting member arranged to engage the opposite face of av'different section of the Wire,ineanS for advancing the wire to effect a longitudinal smoothing action on the engaged sections, and means for transversely smoothing the free faces of the supported sections. v

'6. The method of finishing insulatedflat Wire conductors, which consists in longitudinally advancing the conductor and in alternately supporting and smoothing the opposite faces of successive sections of the wire.-

JOHN ALLEN HEANY. 

